Newsletter

EDITORIAL: ESPLOST Shortfall: Self-inflicted wound

IT’S DISCOURAGING that Savannah-Chatham County public school officials now say they will come up $15 million short on keeping the promises made to voters who approved EPSPLOST I six years ago.

This unhappy development, which this newspaper reported Sunday, caught many by surprise.

There had been no inkling that the system would be off by this amount.

If anything, citizens were led to believe that the school system had sufficient sales tax revenue coming in to complete its revised list of improvement projects. After all, officials already scaled back this list to reflect the recession’s hit on the local economy and lower-than-expected tax collections.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

This means that some of the ESPLOST I school improvement projects may have to be carried over to EPLOST II, the extension of the school sales tax that voters approved last November. The board is expected to make those decisions in July.

Clearly, this isn’t where the school board should be at this point. Board President Joe Buck and Superintendent Thomas Lockamy still have the public’s support and confidence. Yet unexpected revelations like this one don’t help with the greater mission of school improvement.

Elected officials must do their best to keep the promises they make. And if they can’t, they must have compelling reasons.

That’s part of the concern with the $15 million shortfall on ESPLOST I. Most people can understand and accept glitches and unforeseen (and expensive) problems with construction projects.

But some of the damage here appears self-inflicted.

For example, school board members learned early on that there was no way ESPLOST I would generate $360 million over five years. So that projection was downsized to $330 million to reflect reality. At the same time, the board cut its project list, particularly on technology upgrades.

But strangely, the same board that acted prudently on one hand then went off the deep end on the other.

For example, when ESPLOST I projects came in under budget at some schools, board members didn’t put the savings into a special account to help cover projects at other schools. Instead, they decided to spend the money only at the schools where it had been earmarked. So the $1.1 million designated for Windsor Forest Elementary School (just to name one that finished under budget) had to be spent only at that school — even if it meant buying extras like window treatments.

But the biggest revenue-eaters appeared to be related to political changes the board made regarding Beach High School, Hodge Elementary and Gadsden Elementary.

The decision to build a new, 2,000-seat gym at Beach — as opposed to including it as a proposed ESPLOST II project — immediately added $5 million to the ESPLOST I bottom line. Indeed, that’s a full third of the final $15 million shortfall. Reversing the decision to close Hodge and deciding to rebuild Gadsden on a problematic site also consumed sizable sums.

A case can be made for a new gym at Beach. However, it wasn’t promised to voters at this time. Yet here are some projects that were promised, yet didn’t get funded: Heard Elementary addition ($2.5 million), Largo-Tibet addition ($1.9 million), May Howard Elementary addition ($1.7 million), Isle of Hope addition ($1.4 million), Hesse Elementary addition ($258,000) and J.G. Smith Elementary restroom upgrade ($248,000).

Did the school board — or staff — have any inkling about a pending $15 million shortfall? Did it believe it could still pay for these projects? Didn’t it hire a program manager, URS, that was supposed to pay attention to such things?

On the plus side, the $311.7 million worth of school improvements delivered through EPSLOST I (compared to the $326.6 million list that was promised) met or exceeded expectations. Voter support for ESPLOST II was overwhelming, and rightly so.

Huge construction and renovation projects pose challenges. That’s especially true for professional educators who aren’t in the construction business.

“I can only say that I am sorry we were unable to complete everything that we had originally planned to do,” Dr. Lockamy said. Apology accepted.

Now it’s time to learn and go forward. With EPSLOST II and its $350 million project list, the board must spend the necessary funds to keep the promises it made with ESPLOST I.

Then it must keep closer tabs on revenue coming in and money going out. It must bank any savings. It must be disciplined and resist the urge to make changes in the line-up, unless there’s no other recourse. It must have a program manager that helps the school board and staff stay on track.

And finally, to the best of everyone’s ability, there should be no surprises.